Effect of different operating conditions on the conversion efficiency of triple-junction solar cell

Abstract

In this work, a theoretical study based on the detailed balance limit has been carried out for the performance evaluation of series-connected triple-junction solar cell. The effect of different operating conditions on the conversion efficiency of the solar cell is evaluated by numerical modeling using MATLAB. The performance has been measured for three standard spectra (AM0, AM1.5D and AM1.5 G) and over a range of temperatures (273 K–523 K) under varying solar concentration. It has been observed that changes in operating conditions have a significant impact on conversion efficiency. The conversion efficiency is found to be highly sensitive to spectrum distribution. By selecting the appropriate bandgap combination as per the incident spectrum, conversion efficiency is improved significantly. The effect of temperature on the conversion efficiency is mitigated by increasing the ratio of solar concentration. The finding of the present study indicates that appropriate combination of bandgap and solar concentration can be an effective tool to improve the conversion efficiency. This study can further be extended for higher generation solar cells to evaluate their performance.